These things come in cycles. German classical music is hugely significant and their movies were hugely popular in the early 20th century before sound. I've always liked Kraftwerk and Alphaville although Alphaville is often not seen as German because they always sing in English as far as I can tell. I've talked to a couple of people who didn't realise they were German.
I think in current times Germany is recognised for its engineering excellence and in this regard the German economy is hugely successful with a large trade surplus. It does seem though that many German goods are reprocessed Chinese manufactured goods, tools, bicycles etc and then given 'a made in germany' sticker at an inflated price and German car reliability that was once great and equal to japanese cars now seems very poor.
This car reliability site which has absolutely no bias purely based on warranty insurance claims has german cars as the worst overall for frequency of repairs and repair costs. However people's perception of reliability and quality takes many years to change. I had a mark 1 Golf which was fantastic and it took me a while to realise/accept that most German cars are best avoided nowadays.
http://www.reliabilityindex.com/manufacturer
It's funny how marketing can skew people's perception. Often people blame the dealer rather than the cars so when they buy an unreliable German car which they perceive themselves to be reliable they blame the dealer for the problems. Hence German car dealerships are also rated very low. I don't think anyone would believe that just being a German car dealership would attract more unhelpful staff.
http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/news/150051/driver-power-survey-dealership-results
The point I'm making is how a country is perceived if often more important than the actual reality and music sells not just on the music itself but how you perceive the artist and how much you connect with them emotionally.
Also if I hear music that I really like, just a snippet I have to seek it out myself if it isn't mainstream but big US artists are pushed everywhere. While watching youtube often I would watch 80s music videos and youtube would put adverts on for american artists in between the videos. Those adverts were intrusive and it was music that I felt was very poor and nothing like the music I listened to by choice. In the end I had to use a advert blocker so I could use youtube without such adverts. I didn't want to do this but often I was saturated with such adverts and with skip often removed. A lot of the big car magazine's sold in the UK are part of large German media companies and often are selective about what they print. A car's quality will often be focused on the dashboard, interior etc with little focus on high running costs and general known poor reliability. The UK is a particularly strong market for german luxury cars.
Controlling the media and what people see is a bit part of the selling process and overall perception.
